Review: The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project
by Lenore Appelhans

Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Publication Date: March 5, 2019

Riley is a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, and that’s all he was ever supposed to be. He lives in TropeTown, where everyone is a cliche character to be used in books. After breaking the rules and going off-script, Riley is sent to mandatory group therapy with other Manic Pixies. He meets and falls for Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl also in the group. As Riley gets to know Zelda and the other Manic Pixies in therapy, they find out their trope is on the brink of being terminated and must find a way to save it. There are plenty of Manic Pixie hijinks along the way, in a book that shows the joy in being yourself.

THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT by Lenore Appelhans is fun, quirky, and everything you expect from a book about Manic Pixie Dream Girls/Boy. Yet it is also deep and introspective. The book explores and deconstructs the Manic Pixie trope, briefly covering some other tropes as well. As a YA book that parodies YA tropes, THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT is naturally quite self aware; Riley breaks the fourth wall multiple times. This wonderful mix of qualities make this a pretty unique and interesting book. I really enjoyed reading it, and if you like subversions of typical YA stories, you will too.

Review: Splinter

Splinter
by Sasha Dawn

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Publication Date: March 1, 2017

SPLINTER by Sasha Dawn is a mystery novel about Samantha Lang trying to figure out what happened to her mother after her disappearance ten years ago, trying to avoid the obvious conclusion that her dad is guilty. Samantha tries to play the role of a detective, finding out clues on her own. I really enjoyed this book, which is basically a puzzle. It is fun to try to think about what really happened, piecing together bits of information as they appear. Throughout the book, many of the clues that are revealed cause you to re-form your own opinion of what really happened. For each new piece of evidence, you are forced to decide how, or if, you should use the new information. I found this book to be engaging and suspenseful, and I would read other books by this author. Although it's a different genre, this book reminded me of THE MARTIAN. I would recommend this book to fans of THE MARTIAN, and also to those who like to solve or play with puzzles.